The Livingston enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1914, 1887-02-05
ELECTRICITY IN MoDERN WARFARE
The Torpedo-Military Telegraph - Fir.
ing Broadsides Other Uses.

1he Torped0-Military Telegraph - Fir.
ing Broadsides-O Other Uses.
New York SUM-
The essay of Lieut.. B. A. Fiske, ofthe
navy, read befor the Franklin institute,
Of the part played by electricity in war
fare, shows it to be already military
agent of high Importance, instead of a
power to be developed only in tho
future.
Probably few people appreciate the
fact that electrical torpedoes really date
back over forty years, to the time when
Col. Samuel Colt in the presence of
President Tyler, Gen. Scott, and many
congressmen, blew up vessels five
miles away by the use of an electric
wire. Long after. nevertheless, both in
European wars and in our own civil
conflict, combatants were content to
rely chiefly on the old mechanical mine,
which, when once fixed in q ehant>vl for
the defense of harbor, blows up i'm
partially friend and foe. Hereafter the
almost universal rule will be to plant
torpedoes that remain harmless ur|il
signal delivered through the electric
wire shows that the enemy is upon them,
which will instantly he responded to by
the return current from the firing bat
terry on shore The harhor is then no
longer blocked to all friendly commerce
from the moment that torpedoes are
planted. On the other hand, electricity
may be employed also TO detect the
presence of fixed torpedoes In NOV
able torpedoes it exercises constant con-
troll over the weapon, directing it against
The enemy, and hence preventing him
from evading it, as he may evade nom
electrical torpedoes
The torpedo, however! though lust
now the most prominent military appli.
cation of electricity, is only one of
many. The military telegraph was
familiar in our civil war. where it had
it's origin; and now military telegraph
corps, with their special apparatus for
laying wire at great speed, form part
of all great armies The telephone sup
plements the telegraph. and both instru-
ments are used in artillery practice to
track hostile vessels so as to determine
exactly when to fire on them, and also to
register the time of flight of pro 'ectiles
Since ieut. Fiske says that ''the nre.
else instant of start to within thou
sandth of second is recorded
for pro ectiles by electricity, tho
suggestion comes up whether
some application of electricity
will not one day give more accurate in.
dications in racing than stop watches,
whose recorded ffths of a second are
sometimes looked on with doubt on mar
row questions of breaking records
Electricity now fires whole broad
sides of prodigious guns at the touch Of
a button. thereby not only producing
that absolutely simultaneous discharge.
which has hitherto not been known, hut
also eliminating the clement of changs
i'll aim produced by even an instant's
roll of the ship during the slower
process of hand firing. Electricity also,
can handle with ease heavy ordnance
in forts and Oh shiphoard: though this
N ust rath~s be ranked among it's uses
herea fter IT, be developed.
Electricity examines the bores of guns
to ascertain their condition, and in the
powerful form of the electr o-dynamo
search light unveils in the darkest night
secret movements alike on ship and
shore. Of besiegers and besiegei, the
stealthy approach of the torpeda-hoat,
or the movement of hostile column to
surprise fort. AS a signal light it is
useful, while it can even be
made to confuse an enemy by throwing
upon him sudden alterations of blind
ng light and paralyzing darkness
Launches have been driven by elec-
tricity, which will, doubtless, on ac-
count of the steady improvement of
storage batteries, one day wholly re-
olace steam for this purpose. Electric
sights for rihed muskets arc now fur
lshed tor night firing; and combined
With them are small lamps for illuulinat
ng the target Rubber bands fasten
hese ingenious devices to the marks
mans gun. There are also electric
lilies, in which the soldier presses a
mall button, thereby, unless he is a
'ery skillful marksman, gettinga better
i'm than when he pulls trigger.
If, in addition to all these applica-
ions, electricity should furnish CON-
'act and not too heavy power for steer
ng military balloons, its contributions
o the art of war will be still more